diff -ur ncurses-ruby-1.2.3~/debian/control ncurses-ruby-1.2.3/debian/control
--- ncurses-ruby-1.2.3~/debian/control	2009-07-04 10:34:05.000000000 -0400
+++ ncurses-ruby-1.2.3/debian/control	2009-07-04 10:16:58.000000000 -0400
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 Section: interpreters
 Priority: optional
 Maintainer: Michael Ablassmeier <abi@debian.org> 
-Build-Depends: debhelper (>> 4.1.0), ruby1.8, ruby1.9, libncurses-dev, ruby1.9-dev, ruby1.8-dev
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>> 4.1.0), ruby1.8, ruby1.9, libncursesw5-dev, ruby1.9-dev, ruby1.8-dev
 Standards-Version: 3.8.1
 
 Package: libncurses-ruby
diff -ur ncurses-ruby-1.2.3~/extconf.rb ncurses-ruby-1.2.3/extconf.rb
--- ncurses-ruby-1.2.3~/extconf.rb	2009-06-25 18:01:24.000000000 -0400
+++ ncurses-ruby-1.2.3/extconf.rb	2009-07-04 10:16:58.000000000 -0400
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@
 have_header("unistd.h")
 have_header("locale.h")
 
+find_header("ncurses.h", "/usr/include/ncursesw")
+
 if have_header("ncurses.h")
   curses_header = "ncurses.h"
 elsif have_header("ncurses/curses.h")
@@ -38,10 +40,21 @@
   raise "ncurses header file not found"
 end
 
-if have_library("ncurses", "wmove")
+if have_library("ncursesw", "wmove")
+  curses_lib = "ncursesw"
+  panel_lib = "panelw"
+  form_lib = "formw"
+  menu_lib = "menuw"
+elsif have_library("ncurses", "wmove")
   curses_lib = "ncurses"
+  panel_lib = "panel"
+  form_lib = "form"
+  menu_lib = "menu"
 elsif have_library("pdcurses", "wmove")
   curses_lib = "pdcurses"
+  panel_lib = "panel"
+  form_lib = "form"
+  menu_lib = "menu"
 else
   raise "ncurses library not found"
 end
@@ -123,15 +136,15 @@
 
 puts "checking for the panel library..."
 if have_header("panel.h")
-  have_library("panel", "panel_hidden")
+  have_library(panel_lib, "panel_hidden")
 end
 puts "checking for the form library..."
 if have_header("form.h")
-  have_library("form", "new_form")
+  have_library(form_lib, "new_form")
 end
 puts "checking for the menu library..."
 if have_header("menu.h")
-  have_library("menu", "new_menu")
+  have_library(menu_lib, "new_menu")
 end
 
 create_makefile('ncurses_bin')